Usually really hot weather and dearth go hand and hand, so at this time you may not have flowers producing all that much nectar. Here once the really hot weather kicks in there is traffic from them bringing water back into the hive for cooling.

That's what I am finding at the moment with perhaps a dozen or so girls at each of my 2 water sources all the time.. its 90F and we are presently under cloud. The girls are however flying and there is a fair bit of flower out with more to come in the next week or so

Slicko

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On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few, And men of religion are scanty,On a road never cross'd 'cept by folk that are lost, One Michael Magee had a shanty.

Thanks for the replies. I have seen a fair few bees in the fishpond. But there are hardly any pet bees on even the few sunflowers that have come up, that have big droplets of nectar on them. There are zillions of native bees on them though. Of course I tried to follow them to their hive. Who said this was possible??

I suppose if we were all as smart as bees though, we'd be able to make our own honey. Maybe they are travelling somewhere, but I haven't seen anything much out in the paddock.

90F?? We don't have none of that sissy southern weather here! It was 42C today and not a cloud to be seen.

The hives are due for an inspection soon so I'll see if their stores are still fair.

No, I'm not in Pentridge Village. The houses they've built in there are on the smallest blocks you could imagine. Friends of ours have a house in there. You couldn't fit a hive in the back 'yard' let alone trees!

They're running out of the main part of the land the prison had to build houses on and now they're converting the old part (the bluestone section at the front) of the prison into apartments. I'ld say the people getting the most enjoyment would be all of the ex crims who'd been locked up in there!

its pretty bad here at the moment in se qld, all of my hives have hundreds of bees forever in the beard like form hangin out the front of the hive, also i checked my hive the other nite and found big groups of toads underneath the hives eating bees like crazy, and the shb are trying to over run the hives, and you have no idea the amount of ants on our property, to give you an idea, they drank half a cup of my coffee in 1 day, thats no bs, they are climbing up to the entrance of the hive and just attaching themselves to t he bees wings and tackling them to the ground and the rest of the bees take em down from there, not to mention the shortage of nector gathering, i harvested one of my hives the other day and found the honey to be nearly like water, even after it was all capped, try explaining that one,, its just one prob after another :( but im fighting through it and so are the bees :P

Sas, It's great that your bees are surviving, and congrats on getting honey. It has been a very bad year for bees. I suppose you already know, but you have to put Queensland (and other states now..) hives on tall hive stands or the cane toads will gobble their way through the whole hive. There are 2 varieties of ants here will kill hives. Oil might stop the ants, but unfortunately the SHB fly. And if that doesn't get you, taxes will.

Well, I started feeding my nuc yesterday. A lot of bees had their little tails in the air and their heads in the honey pots lapping it like mad, so we reckon they are starving. Another hive I brought home tonight to start feeding tomorrow. The brood has become increasingly scanty, so I have to try and stimulate some more laying.

Do you have a close water supply, Sas? They tell me that's important for our hot weather.

yer its a bit weird my hives at the moment, i have 3 frames specifically designed for my top bar hive in one of my hives, they are shaped as a v intstead of the usually rectangular frames, i do have many close water supplies but thats all that they are collecting at the moment sadly, i removed my excluder and let my queen upstairs the other day and she has slowly made her way to lay upstairs which is good becuase i need these top bar hive frames filled with brood, the ants here are ludicrus immortal, i have tried everything, i have found that lacing bearing grease with lime is the only way to stop them, just spread it over the legs of the hive and the ants scream running in the other direction, but the shb suck too!! i have tho found a new place in the bush which has nearly every species of important nector producing trees in qld, and a good nearby water supply so im really keen to wack up some new stands and take them out there, here is a question i need answering,

i want to move only 2 hives with the ute about 25km's, but, i wait until all the bees have returned and the entrance of the hives look like full swarms just sitting there,, so how do i get the bees inside if its just too hot here, also, i have alot of drones cruising around the hives, is it normal this time of year ????

Yes, things are crook in tubruk. I have one hive in town, now, so they will be dining a la carte. Our hive shelters are walk-under star pickets and old corrugated iron, but that's for the rain as well as the shade, Micko and Slicko. We don't get much of that half-hearted melbourne drizzle here. Some folks just put a sheet of iron on top of the hive.

Sas, grease might not stay on in the heat or wet. Oil cans you can just leave, and check occasionally that grass doesn't grow up onto the stand. I've seen ants so thick on a hive, the bees can't land, and a few of those hives were lost. It sounds like a nice spot you found. Please let us know what is blooming there. Have you had rain? You can try smoking the bees inside when you go to shift the hives, and brushing the last few. I don't know of any other techniques, except just leaving the entrance open. My hives are so poor I haven't seen a drone for a long time, but I believe they are a sign of a healthy hive. Too many drones, there might be a problem with the queen or maybe an indication they want to swarm. Sas, do you know of a good place to buy queens?

A hot one today here. If the weather is favourable I am going to open the hives this weekend, but from the activity in the morning before it heats up there is still quite a bit of nectar flowing around here. I've seen some yellow gums and qld box brush in flower to keep the girls going.

The beards on my hives are huge. I've collected swarms smaller than that. I am thinking of erecting shade for my girls too.

Luckily we don't have cane toads here (yet). There was a report of one hitching a ride in a palm pot from qld yesterday. It's not time to get the bat out yet and play cane toad cricket.

i think my queen is fine cuz hive numbers are huge at the moment, many drones, but they have plenty of room so i guess ill wait for the workers to kick em out later, we have stringys just starting to flower where i am,, i have just bought roofing insulation for my hives, they work beautiful, i use straps to hold the whole hive together so i just strap over the insulation:P perfect, and i got a bigger stand which i hope will keep the toads away :P its darn hot here, not much necter in town so im moving bush, cant wait, and i beleive guilfoils sell pretty good queens, but im going to try a guy iin the glass house mountains, cant remember his name but he has favourable queens aswell :p ill let you know anywayz, im just waiting for those tbh frames to fill with brood so i can cut this nuc and add a queen :P